If you don't have a business model, it's definitely just about the exit. Or maybe the funding rounds.
I suspect that having a business model makes it much easier to also have real value to users.
Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
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Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#12An enjoyable description of tech companies, small & medium, that make money for the founders but don't exit big.
If a large sector of the populace became tech entrepreneurs, would life be better? I suspect this is the case.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#13If you don't have a business model, it's definitely just about the exit. Or maybe the funding rounds.
True. Demand creation and life time value are one of many things that add sustainability to a company on its way to hockey stick scaling.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#14That's probably the best written TC article I've ever seen.
I believe you, but its major failure is not looking at the problem from the viewpoint of investors and risk. Sure, $500K for "several million dollars in dividends" sounds great, but how many $500K investments will you have to make to get such payouts and what's your opportunity cost in meantime?
A “lifestyle business” might be great for a lifestyle investor---and there are those, just not very many, especially ones who can put up $500K or 1/10th or 1/20th in a syndication.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#15Entrepreneurship overall isn't about the exit, but VC-backed technology startups are very likely about the exit. To me, entrepreneurship is the chance to build something that people want, the chance to lead and the chance to have a voice in one's own destiny. Corporate jobs often don't offer those things. You usually build what others tell you to build, follow orders and have little voice in your own future. Can you…
On the flip side, if the team from 37 Signals worked for a great technology company like Facebook, Google or Apple, they could have built products that tens or hundreds of millions of users and hundreds of thousands of developers use every day. They could have worked with some of the best engineers and designers on the planet and have had a huge impact on the products they've built and their company's success. They also could have also created popular open source software that runs on massive infrastructures, written their own blogs, and achieved industry fame.
I'm not trying to argue that entrepreneurship isn't a great path to pursue for many people, but I disagree with the simplistic picture that people sometime paint wherein entrepreneurship is always glamorous and employment is always dreary.
Disclaimer: I work for Facebook.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#16Entrepreneurship overall isn't about the exit, but VC-backed technology startups are very likely about the exit. To me, entrepreneurship is the chance to build something that people want, the chance to lead and the chance to have a voice in one's own destiny. Corporate jobs often don't offer those things. You usually build what others tell you to build, follow orders and have little voice in your own future. Can you…
On the flip side, if the team from 37 Signals worked for a great technology company like Facebook, Google or Apple, they could have built products that tens or hundreds of millions of users and hundreds of thousands of developers use every day. They could have worked with some of the best engineers and designers on the planet and have had a huge impact on the products they've built and their company's success. They a…
That's a really good point. There definitely are shades of gray. There are companies where one can have a voice and build some great things. One doesn't have to be the founder to be part of an entrepreneurial effort.
It doesn't always always have to be about money. Open source software gives people to build something, break some new ground and make a change. I guess that's the same drive that gets people to found or be part of all kinds of efforts that extend beyond software and startups.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#17Start-ups have so much uncertainty in what the final business will look like that it's difficult to tell at the outset whether the start-up will result in a lifestyle business (a.k.a. a "small business"), or something that is best suited a larger enterprise.
It's somewhat of a lifestyle decision for the founders, but sometimes the realities of the business make the decision.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#18I have a different model of exit that is my goal. To create companiesnthatncan run without my daily involvement. Then repeat. I currently am a partner in an LLC that owns two retail stores. We will do a third of this franchise and then move on to something else. I essentially live off the profits currently and spend 10-30 hours a month on them.
And that, my friend, is a totally sustainable residual-income-based business model too.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#19Entrepreneurship overall isn't about the exit, but VC-backed technology startups are very likely about the exit. To me, entrepreneurship is the chance to build something that people want, the chance to lead and the chance to have a voice in one's own destiny. Corporate jobs often don't offer those things. You usually build what others tell you to build, follow orders and have little voice in your own future. Can you…
You're not mistakenly thinking that 37Signals was liberated by VC, right? They were self-funded with consulting work. And David was just a freelancer for them at the beginning.
"Can you imagine if the team at 37 Signals did corporate consulting? They wouldn't be rock stars, they'd be design whores with no blog..."
Lots of people who have "real jobs" also have outsized online presences, have gone on to fame and relative fortune because of their off-hours OSS contributions.
Adding VC to the people who don't, sure isn't going to change their path.
I agree with your definition of entrepreneurship - a chance to lead, to do it your way, to have a voice in your own destiny.
Which is why I'd never, ever, ever take funding, and risk having to manage the expectations of someone whose goal wasn't a fabulous business, but the biggest/fastest exit possible.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#20Entrepreneurship overall isn't about the exit, but VC-backed technology startups are very likely about the exit. To me, entrepreneurship is the chance to build something that people want, the chance to lead and the chance to have a voice in one's own destiny. Corporate jobs often don't offer those things. You usually build what others tell you to build, follow orders and have little voice in your own future. Can you…
On the flip side, if the team from 37 Signals worked for a great technology company like Facebook, Google or Apple, they could have built products that tens or hundreds of millions of users and hundreds of thousands of developers use every day. They could have worked with some of the best engineers and designers on the planet and have had a huge impact on the products they've built and their company's success. They a…
If they were allowed to.
It's no coincidence that founders who get bought by BigCo's end up looking miserable 12 months down the line, after being demoted to an employee, who doesn't have full control of their baby any more.